1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector compatible to standards of Universal Serial Bus (USB) and External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (eSATA) protocols having incorporated power contacts adapted to provide power supply to a device connected through the eSATA connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Serial ATA connectors made in accordance with Serial ATA specification are widely used in desktop computers currently for transmitting signals from motherboard to HDD or transmitting power from power supply of the computer to the HDD, or transmitting signals or power between outer HDD to the computer. When the Serial ATA connectors are used in external applications, current designs usually use a single connector comprising signal and grounding contacts for signal transmission or single connector comprising power contacts for different-voltage power transmission. However, in some applications, the connector has to transmit both the signals and power, and power contacts have to be incorporated therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,371,116 issued to Chiang on May 13, 2008 discloses a connector socket compatible to external serial ATA (eSATA) and universal serial bus (USB) connectors has a casing, an eSATA contact set and a USB contact set. The casing has a cavity defined in the casing, an inner rear surface and a contact seat formed on and extending forward from the inner rear surface. The eSATA contact set is mounted on the contact seat and has multiple eSATA contacts being conductive and mounted on the contact seat. The USB contact set is mounted on the contact seat opposite to the eSATA contact set and has multiple USB contacts mounted thereon the contact seat.
Since USB connector includes two DC terminals according to its protocol standard; computer peripherals that use the USB connector do not need extra external power. Therefore, the computer peripheral can obtain its working power after its connector is inserted into the connector socket. Due to its original protocol standard, the eSATA connector requires an external power supply to function normally. The design of an external power supply not only increases the cost of the product using the eSATA connector, it is also difficult for the product to become compact.
Therefore, it is necessary to further improve the electrical connector.